Poker Day 449: The Age of Thor

Today we didn't simply want to play poker.  We felt we had to play. We'll explain why below, but first let's review how the tournament went.

Arrowhead Poker tried a new approach today - a "THOR" tournament: one blind of Texas Hold 'em, then one blind of Pot-Limit Omaha and one blind of Razz. (TH+O+R - get it?) Most of us needed a quick review of the Omaha and Razz rules, and then the adventure began....

BLINDS: 100/200; Texas Hold 'em

IN THE POCKET: A-5 offsuit

We're early in the action, and early feelers haven't worked well.  But now we're in the Big Blind, so we're ready to play some defense. When a player raises to 600, we call. About half the table of nine is in.

ON THE FLOP: J-J-4

There's a pair - but not really our pair.  We check, as do everyone else.

ON THE TURN: 5

Now there's two pair - one of them ours. The Small Blind checks, so we bet 700. A man across the table calls; everyone else folds.

ON THE RIVER: 9

That seems harmless, so we bet 700 again. Our opponent calls.  But when we show our 5, he folds without showing.  Two pair is good enough to lift our stack above a starting 42,000 to almost 44,000.

We stayed above starting level in the first blind, but then stumbled in other formats.  A man betting enormous sums in Omaha chased us off chances for big gains (such as a 2 in our hand with 2-2 on the board). We lost some more playing "low-ball" Razz, leaving us with about 9,000 chips.

At the one-hour break, we did something we don't recall doing before in a tournament: we took a $10 re-buy for 20,000 more chips. (It only cost $20 to enter, which helped.) That's when things turned around - as an all-in bet with J-J led to a big win and a knockout in Texas Hold 'em. Then A-3 all-in was low enough to win in Razz, and knock out another opponent.

We lasted to the final three, on a day with only one table of nine. That was enough to put us in the money, as we chopped a $140 purse and received a $45 share!  We're thankful for our first live tournament payday since mid-January (two out of 11 in 2015).

MINISTRY MOMENT: We dedicated our play today to Elaine Grubb, a young woman who was a poker regular during our years in Georgia. She dealt with several health issues, including kidney dialysis. Yet she kept playing poker as her health permitted, showing up for some tournaments in a wheelchair - and played with far better results than we had.

Elaine died (obituary link updated) early today at a hospital; based on Facebook comments, she developed a blood clot in her lung over the weekend. If that wasn't sad enough, she was only 30.

We think she would have been happy with our play. And we were happy to talk to her a few times about matters involving God and Jesus Christ. How much of that stuck with her to the end?  God only knows now.  But we have this promise from God's Word:

Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out -- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. - John 5:28-29

Jesus said all who have died will come out someday, when a particular voice speaks. Which voice is that?

I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. - John 5:25

We think Jesus is talking about His own voice here, as "the son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).  That voice can speak to you today, and provide eternal life if you believe and heed it.  We hope you listen, while there's time to do it.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 164 final tables in 449 games (36.5%) - 27 cashes.

Once again, a one-table tourney equals a final table. But we've made 8 out of 11 final tables this year, one way or another.

Poker Day 418: Omaha, Hike

There may have been competition before, when it comes to poker rooms in our city.  But there certainly is now.  After seeing a front-page ad in a weekly newspaper, today we went to Winners Cardroom - a room which has been open only about a month, and still had things being installed as we waited to play.

The set-up is similar to River City Card Room - with "free" tournaments every day, if you pay a $20 "chair rental."  One big difference is that food and drink costs money at Winners, instead of being free.  Another is that you can buy five "tip chips" to pay the dealer during the games, in exchange for 5,000 bonus chips.

Call us a cheapskate, but we plunked down only $20 to take our chances -- at what turned out to be a one-table "Dealer's Choice" affair:

BLINDS: 100/200

FORMAT: Omaha Hi/Lo

IN THE POCKET: 7-5-6-J

Someone else selected this format.  We certainly would not, because we've had no success at it.  But three connectors in a row seems "good to go" for us, so we call.  Keep in mind, Omaha rules only allow players to use two of their pocket cards in building hands -- and in "Hi/Lo," the highest and lowest hands will split the pot.

ON THE FLOP: 7-K-4

We have a pair, but hope for much more.  Our 5-6 gives us an open-ended straight draw.  We've lost a little of our starting stack, so we want to stick around.  As best we recall, a player to our left bet around 700, and we called.

ON THE TURN: 10

No, that's not it.  Now, as best we remember, the player to our left put out 1,200.  With that straight draw still possible, we call again -- as a man to our right who's already folded mumbles something about having a 9-8.  Uh-oh.  That would be a higher straight than ours.

ON THE RIVER: 3

That's it!  At least, we hope so.  Now we bet 1,000 (as best we recall).  A couple of people call.  Then we announce, "56 Straight."

Our two "hole cards" wind up succeeding!  The straight wins the "high" side of the pot.  Then the dealer declares we also have the "low" side -- apparently from the 5-6 joining with 3-4-10?! (We invite readers to help us understand this.)  We take every chip in play, and a pot in the thousands.

This started us on a run to take several hands in the first hour.  We reached a high of 50,000 chips (from a starting 15,100).  But then the winning stopped, as our chip stack slowly eroded due to rising blinds.

We stayed alive at one point on an all-in bet with three Jacks.  But then another Omaha hand came with five players remaining, and were forced to go all-in for our last 10,000 chips.  The cards gave up a club flush -- but our clubs were 3-2, and someone else had two higher clubs to defeat us.

On a day with an estimated 12 players floating in and out, we wound up fifth.  Only the top two players won money, but it still was a rather satisfying finish in a format we admittedly don't feel comfortable playing.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Before the game began, two men were talking about recent bad beats they had in cash games.  One man described having J-J, and feeling thrilled about a flop of J-10-10.  Then he was shocked to see 10-10 on the turn and river -- and another man with a King wound up with the better quads!

"That's a sign from God that's it's time to get out," the other man told him.  Interesting.

"But doesn't God give signs that things are going well?!" we asked moments later.

The man seemed reluctant to accept that -- but let's consider this issue.  Signs are discussed many times in the Bible.  Take this example given by Jesus:

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.... - Matthew 24:30

If you saw this sign of Christ, what would your reaction be?  Would it be positive or negative?  Jesus continues:

....and all the nations of the earth will mourn.  They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. - Matthew 24:30b

The nations will mourn when they the sign of Jesus's second coming.  Why?  Probably because the nations as a whole have doubted God's existence, or didn't think the Bible meant what it said.  Yet those who believe in Jesus will have no reason to mourn....

And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. - Matthew 24:31

Other verses show God's "elect" will meet Jesus in the air, at His second coming (I Thessalonians 4:16-17) - and they'll live with the Lord forever.  The sign of the Son of Man will be absolutely positive for them.  So it comes down to a simple question: how do you look at Jesus -- and do you believe His promise about a second coming?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 146 final tables in 418 games (34.9%) - 24 cashes.  Today marked our first final table in the last six live tournaments, and the first since late September.

Poker Day 414: O-No-Maha

If the game is nothing but Texas Hold 'em, we probably can hold our own.  But add other games, and things could be different.  The current Sunday format at River City Poker Room has alternating blinds: first Texas Hold 'em, then high-hand Omaha.  That meant things started well for us today.  And then....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: J-J-3-2 (Omaha)

We own an early pot with A-3, when the Ace paired.  But in the last hand, we lost several thousand chips with Q-J-9-8.  Even though the board showed J-10-A-8 to give us a well-hidden straight (you can only use two of your four cards to make a hand in Omaha), an Ace on the river gave a man to our left quad Aces.

Surely that can't happen again, so we raise to 1,000 with a good pocket pair.  About half the players at our table of six calls.

ON THE FLOP: K-10-6 (third card may not be precise)

The flop is a rainbow, which works to our advantage.  But without top pair, we decide to play carefully instead of making a continuation bet.  We check; so do everyone else.

ON THE TURN: K

The board pairs -- but we suspect someone with a King would have bet by now.  So sitting first in the order, we bet 700.  A player in the middle of the table folds, but a man on the other side calls.

ON THE RIVER: K

A third King gives us a full house, and we see no need to hesitate.  We bet 3,000.

"I'll raise," our opponent says -- a double to 6,000.  This is a bit puzzling.  He probably has a pocket pair for his own full house, but ours is too high to let go.  We have to call.

And then.... the man shows a King.  Quads again!  We lose to a huge hand for the second time in a row.  He gets a $50 cash bonus, while we reach the conclusion this is not our day.

It turned out a third person at our table hit quads during the same Omaha blind -- but it wasn't us.  Our stack weakened to the point where we went all-in for our next 1,000 minutes later playing Texas Hold 'em with A-3 of hearts.  The blind was A-4-4 -- but of course, that gave another player three of a kind.  His 4's made us hit the door, with a badly-wounded 12th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "This is GOD'S day, sir!" the dealer at another table exclaimed at one point.  "Don't use language like that on God's day."

This dealer has a habit of being very irreverent -- throwing out comic insults (at least in his mind) without regard to race, gender or religion.  But we used that moment to comment to the players at our table, out of his earshot.

"Some of us went to church yesterday.  That's why we're here on Sunday."

We've mentioned here before that we keep a seventh-day Sabbath because that's what God instructed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), and it's the example Jesus set ....

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  And he stood up to read. - Luke 4:16

Our study Bible says Jesus set an example of "regular worship."  That's true -- but the Bible specifies he kept Sabbaths in the synagogue, which many Jews do to this day.

Yet as we think about it, the dealer could in one sense be right.  That's because of another Bible verse....

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. - Psalm 118:24

We've heard some preachers mention this on the Sabbath, and try to confine this verse to one day of the week.  Our study Bible notes it also could be "a reference to Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles."

But hold on -- didn't God create every day of the week?  Genesis 1-2 shows He created all seven of them.  So we think the point of the verse in Psalm is to give God thanks for every day, rejoicing that He's given us one more day to live.  In this season of U.S. Thanksgiving Day, it's something to consider -- being thankful on more than one Thursday in November.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 145 final tables in 414 games (35.0%) - 24 cashes.

Poker Day 413: Three's a Crowd

Anything can happen when we walk into Arrowhead Poker on a Sunday afternoon.  For instance, the poker room could change its name.  We found Sunday that's happened; a sale to new owners means it's now called River City Poker Room.  But another Sunday adjustment proved to be more bothersome for us....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

FORMAT: No-Limit Omaha, high hand only

IN THE POCKET: J-J-J-8

The managers decided to play "alternate blind" rules -- one blind of Texas Hold 'em, the next of Omaha, then back and forth.  But under Omaha rules, only two of our cards can be used to complete a five-card hand.  In other words, our "three of a kind" pre-flop is really only a high pair.  But it's a good pair, and some loose-playing losses have knocked us down to 7,000 chips.

Add all that up, and we're going all-in with this hand.  Another man calls us, and turns over J-6-7 (we forget what his fourth card was).  He has our missing Jack, but we still have the lead.

ON THE FLOP: 3-6-7

Well, we did have the lead.  He now has two pair, and our only real hope is for the board to pair.

ON THE TURN: 5

Nope, not that one -- and we don't have an open-ended straight draw, because we have to use two of our cards to complete the best hand.

ON THE RIVER: 2

His two pair knocks us or in 14th place -- and while our chip situation really left us little choice except to push there, we learned a lesson about a format we seldom play.  A high pair in your hand in Omaha is good.  But three of something actually is a bit confining; it limits the kind of high-level hands you can make.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Are you going to zap people with that?" a man to our right asked about our card protector.  No, not really - it was a simple AA battery.

"I brought it to remind me," we explained, "I receive power from the Holy Spirit of God.  Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?"

"Of course," the man answered.  "I'm a Catholic."

Uhhhhhh -- hold on a minute.  We didn't correct the man's explanation.  But who says the Holy Spirit is only given to certain denominations or church groups?  Some early apostles had to be correct about that kind of thinking....

After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.  God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith." - Acts 15:7-9

Peter learned this lesson through an encounter with a man named Cornelius, which is detailed in Acts 10.  It appears people of all backgrounds can receive God's Holy Spirit... if....

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. - Acts 5:32

That's a very big if.  If you think you have the Spirit, ask yourself: are you obeying God?  As fully as you know how to do it?  If you're not, confess it to God in prayer -- then get busy doing the things which God enjoys.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 145 final tables in 413 games (35.1%) - 24 cashes.  Our string of three final tables in a row at, uh, that poker room is over.

Poker Day 407: Aussie Rules

We walked into Arrowhead Poker today planning to play Texas Hold 'em.  But then someone at our table uttered two words which changed everything: "Dealer's Choice."

The poker room had paid dealers on the staff, and our dealer agreed to this idea for a Sunday change-up.  Except each player could call the rules for a hand, as the dealer button came to them.  This forced us to play all sorts of poker variations we'd never tried before -- and even one round of blackjack!  They included this one....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: A-K-3-3

We've been dealt four cards instead of two, because the player with the button has called "Billabong."  It's like Omaha poker, except you must use at least three pocket cards (perhaps all four) to make your best possible five-card hand.

We're under the gun with two high cards and a pair.  That seems good enough to start after a few admittedly hesitant hands on our part with other variations.  We call; as best we remember, a player to our left raises to 600 and we call it.

ON THE FLOP: Ah-4d-Kd

Top two pair looks nice -- unless someone has three diamonds, which already would give him a flush.  The blinds check, and we offer a "statement bet" of 1,000.  The raiser to our left isn't scared; he bumps it up to 2,000.  A player behind him calls, and so do we.

ON THE TURN: Qh

Our cards don't offer flush potential, so now we're content to check.  The man to our left refuses to slow down, betting 3,000.  The man between us calls, and we face a challenging decision.  We choose to call, hoping for an Ace or King on the river....

ON THE RIVER: 3c

....but instead, we make a full house in the most unexpected way!  Now we offer a modest-looking bet of 2,000.  The big bettor responds by going all-in for 7,500 more.  The man in the middle calls.  If we were more familiar with this version, we probably would have pushed at this point -- but instead we settle for a call.

"I've got a flush," the big bettor confirms.

"The 3 was my friend," we say -- displaying a threes-over-tens full house.  It knocks the big bettor out, and we hit the jackpot to jump above 51,000 chips.

Only after we get home do we look up the word "billabong."  We knew it's Australian, but thought it was either an animal or a musical instrument.  It's actually a "dead end" tributary of a river.  Considering the river card which came for us, this version of poker is very well-named.  Only one other Billabong hand was played all day -- and we called it, only to fold our cards pre-flop.

But that big haul helped us last for a while -- and on a day with only enough players for two tables, we reached the final table.  (The game returned to regular Texas Hold 'em at that point.)  Then we won a couple of timely pots, including an all-in moment with 6-6 and a push with A-9 which brought a fold.  With careful play and timely cards, we lasted long enough to reach the final two!

Our opponent had a big advantage in chips at that point, and our attempt to go all-in with K-6 and King-high at the turn did us in.  He made a pair of 4's on the turn, and survived the river to win the tournament.  But we finished very thankful - as second place paid three times our buy-in, or $60.  (Third place had a payout as well.)

MINISTRY MOMENT: We told you during an earlier Arrowhead tournament about a man who served time in prison, and now is going straight with his life.

"Thirteen months," he told the table, "and I haven't touched a drop."

"Praise the Lord," we said in response.

"And I do," the man confirmed -- giving God the credit.

If you have success, whether at a poker tournament or in battling life's trials, do you give credit where it's due?

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. - Psalm 115:1

It's tempting to be like Little Jack Horner, of nursery rhyme fame -- and declare, "What a good boy am I!"  But we heard a sermon on Christian radio as we drove to the tournament which reminded us we're not good.

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one.... All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." - Romans 3:10, 12

These are humbling words -- and as we heard during a sermon in our own congregation over the weekend, we should be humble in our daily walk.

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - I Peter 5:5b

We couldn't even drive or walk to a poker room without God providing the life and strength to do it.  Be sure to thank God for those seemingly small daily blessings -- as well as the bigger ones when they come along.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 141 final tables in 407 tournaments (34.6%) - 23 cashes.  We've played in five live tournaments since moving to Wichita, and finished first or second in three of them!